


Romani Was My Friend

by Areeta9



Series: Violet: Master of Chaldea [20]
Category: Fate/Grand Order, Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Character Death, Death, Friendship, Male-Female Friendship, Reflection, Self-Reflection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-16 00:48:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28697934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Areeta9/pseuds/Areeta9
Summary: Violet reflects on the life of Dr. Romani Archaman.
Series: Violet: Master of Chaldea [20]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1589119
Kudos: 8





	Romani Was My Friend

**Author's Note:**

> Happens some time after the Temple of Solomon

Violet made her way through Chaldea’s metallic hallways. She made a left, then another left, then a right. She kept walking down the hallway until she came to a dorm that had long lost its occupant.

Violet shifted the small vase she was holding to one hand and typed in the passcode for the door on its keypad.

The door slid open. Violet stepped into the room. It was clean. The bed was made and the papers on the desk were organized neatly. There wasn’t a spot of dust to be seen anywhere. It made sense: a staff member would come and dust the room every few days.

The room was tidy, tidier than how its former inhabitant used to keep it. Despite this, little traces of its former inhabitant could still be found.

Carefully placed over the back of the desk chair was a white and green jacket; its length marked it as belonging to a medical staff member.

Violet wistfully ran her hand across the fabric. She sighed before proceeding to the back of the room. In a formerly empty corner of the room sat an open wooden cabinet about the height of her waist. A butsudan, if Violet remembered correctly.

It was rather curious there was a Japanese style memorial shrine in Romani Archaman’s bedroom when the man was not Japanese nor was he Buddhist. However, after the funeral, his father, David, was in no mental state to object and the Japanese servants wanted to honor him. Da Vinci figured the Doctor was enough of a weeaboo to like it anyway so she allowed it.

Instead of Buddhist religious accessories were various Jewish items. Violet gazed upon the items surrounding the memorial, some of them had been provided by David, others had been found within the room by Mash. Violet listed the names of the items in her head.

A Mezuzah. The small box was supposed to contain verses from the Torah written on parchment. It had been affixed on the wall besides Romani’s door, but apparently fell off around the time he joined Violet, Mash, and the servants within Solomon’s temple.

Two white Shabbat candles. Despite their presence, they were unused. Fitting as Romani never took a Sabbath. He was always busy looking out for everyone else.

A Star of David amulet. Or perhaps it was more accurate to call it a Seal of Solomon in this case?

Aside from the religious items were various things that had belonged to Romani including his ID, a MagiMari figma, and a few rare candies from his candy stash.

The shrine was decorated with various pictures of the doctor, some of them professional, some of them silly, some of them of him alone, others group photos.

Violet smiled at the photo of her, Mash, Da Vinci all giving Romani our Valentine’s gifts. She laughed as she remembered how surprised he was and how red his face got. She was glad Georgios had decided to capture the moment.

Violet picked up the flower pot that had sat on the shrine(its flowers had wilted and died) and replaced them with her own vase of flowers. They were peach roses fresh from Chaldea’s greenhouse. She had requested them because they reminded her of Romani’s hair.

Violet stood up from her crouched position and stood at the center of the room. 

_ ‘Because of Ars Nova...Will everything related to Solomon have disappeared once I leave Chaldea and return to the normal world,’ _ she wondered. 

The idea was rather startling to her. Whole books of the Bible would be gone and God knows what else would be gone too. What was scarier was that that would mean that only those that resided in Chaldea would have any memory of Romani. Only a sum of about thirty people to testify of his existence...

She let herself be absorbed by her memories of the doctor. She wanted to solidify him in her mind. 

She thought about their first meeting. She had been whisked away to Chaldea by mages, forced into a uniform, thrown into a simulation, then left passed out in the hallway. Fou and Mash found her, brought her to orientation, only for her to be slapped and sent out by Olga Marie when the simulation’s sudden activation of her previously untapped magic circuits made her fall asleep during the meeting. Mash helped her to her room and when she opened the door she found a 30-year-old man chilling on her bed.

Logic said that Violet should have been on guard around Romani for many reasons: 

  1. She had been taken to a strange place against her will 
  2. One person related to her capture had already shown hostility towards her 
  3. She still didn’t know where she was or what was going on
  4. He grown man whom she didn’t know in her bed



But…

_ “Fact is, Roman has a nice ring to it, no? It sounds cool and vaguely sweet,” he said with an easy smile. _

_ Violet studied him as she stood in front of the door before she breathed out, letting the tension leave her body. This man was harmless. She proceeded towards Dr. Romani and she held out her hand. “Oh, so you’re the fluffy type?” she asked with a light smile. _

They then spent a while just talking. The Doctor was very considerate. He told Violet as much as he could about Chaldea before he was called to the Rayshift room by Lev Lainur.

_ ‘Then after that…’ _ Violet thought.

Explosion, fire, death, Mash, Fuyuki, fight or die…

_ “Master Candidate #48, Violet Blackwell. If you wish to save humanity...If you wish to have a future beyond 2018. Then you alone must go and face these seven singularities in human history.” _

Though it could be said that Camelot and Babylonia had the greater peril, the greater stakes, it was Orleans through Londinium that took the greatest emotional toll on Violet. She was grateful to the Doctor. He had helped her through what were the worst times of her life.

She recalled the time when Romani walked in on her putting up a blown up version of the School of Chaldea CE on her wall in her bedroom.

_ “Why?” he asked in embarrassment. _

_ “So I can wake up every morning to my OTP,” she replied. _

She used to make a lot of jokes about Romani hooking up with Da Vinci, insisting that Mash’s “mom” and “dad” needed to be together. She even kept every craft essence that had the two or three of them together in her bedside drawer. To this day, she was sure there was  _ something _ between him and Da Vinci.

Oddly enough, there was an instance where Violet ended up in his bedroom with his head in her lap. Violet couldn’t fully recall what had happened. He had needed something from his bedroom. She was looking for him for some reason. She saw the dark circles under his eyes. He hadn’t slept in days. Somehow they ended up on his bed. His head was rested in her lap and she was running her hand through his hair. She was humming the opening to an anime they had both watched. She made a joke about how he'd probably prefer to get a lap pillow from Da Vinci. He didn’t respond. He was sleeping peacefully.

Looking back now, Violet realized just how intimate what she had done was. Despite the jokes she made and how much she had shipped her two superiors together, she now had to wonder if she herself had had feelings for the Doctor.

_ ‘Was I in love with Romani Archaman?’  _ Violet wondered before shaking her head. ‘Certainly not.  _ Perhaps if we had known each other for longer… _ ’

Memories of watching anime together came to mind, then watching Magi Mari livestreams. Violet didn’t become a diehard fan like Romani but she figured it must have felt lonely having no one willing to indulge you in a harmless hobby.

Violet remembered watching Romani Archaman’s back as he removed his gloves, revealing Solomon’s tenth ring. She remembered his sacrifice.

They defeated Goetia. Mash was brought back to life with a full lifespan. They ran out of the collapsing temple hand in hand. The joy of the Chaldeans was overwhelming. It made their later sorrow over the Doctor even more crushing.

David tore his garments. Psalm 91 was read. El Maleh Rachamim was said. Mash wept. The two sat Shiva.

Violet wiped her face and blinked back tears. The time for mourning had passed. The world that Romani had loved so much was still out there, still kicking. It was her job to keep it going. She needed to get back to work.

She took the dead flowers and left the room, locking the door behind her, to attend to the future that her friend had died for.


End file.
